Religion

1. Religion

2. What is religion? • 1.Stories that members believe are important • 2.Use symbols and symbolism • 3.Nonempirical – propose the existence of beings, powers, places and qualities that cannot be measured scientifically • 4.Rituals and means of addressing the supernatural • 5.Society has religious experts • 6.Religions are subject to change

3. History of study of religion • E.B. Tylor, a founder of anthropology believed religions progressed • Animism – all objects, living and non-living have spirits • Polytheism • Monotheism • Evolving to be more logical and rational

4. History of study of religion • E.B. Tylor, a founder of anthropology believed religions progressed • This view now discredited • Anthropologists study how religion operates within society and how it creates meaning for people

5. What religion does in society • Searching for order and meaning • Explain the world and give meaning • Provide cosmology – system of beliefs about fundamental questions • Nature of life and death • Creation of the universe • Origin of society • Relationships • Gives the feeling people have some control

6. What religion does in society • Searching for order and meaning • Giving meaning to life can be one way to help survive hard times • The meaning found does not always bring peace • Group suicides eg. Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate • Oppression or genocide

7. What religion does in society • Reducing anxiety and increasing control • Rituals, prayer, sacrifice, performed to please supernatural beings and to control forces • These practices alter the emotional state • Anthropologists are now working to understand connection between prayer and mental state, health

8. What religion does in society • Reinforcing or modifying social order • Religion usually works to preserve society • Rationale for present social order • Brings people together through common identity • Education, passing culture on • Can also be catalyst for social change when prophets with new ideas change practices • Or may preserve society by providing an outlet for frustration

9. Characteristics of Religion • 1. Stories, Sacred Narratives, and Myths • Stories held to be holy and true by members of a religion, tell historical events, origins, heroes, gods, spirits. Terms us vs them • Validate beliefs, reinforce tradition, solidarity • Hopi ancient sacred blue corn farmed by clans

10. Characteristics of Religion • 2. Symbols and Symbolism • Multivalent – many different conflicting meanings • Allows people to grasp complex abstract ideas • Evoke emotions, feel close to god

11. Characteristics of Religion • 3. Supernatural Beings, Powers, Qualities • Beings apart from humans, not scientifically measured • Anthropomorphic – human form • Zoomorphic – animal form • Naturalistic – associated with features of nature • Anthropopsychic – personality similar to human • Spirits can be happy /unhappy, stingy/generous eg. Netsilik Inuit give soul of animal ritual so soul will inhabit another animal and let hunter succeed un hunt again

12. Characteristics of Religion • 3. Supernatural Beings, Powers, Qualities • God – a named spirit who is believed to have created or to control some aspect of the world • High gods- creator with ultimate power- only present in half of all societies • In one-third of these high gods are distant and withdrawn • For example, Igbo of Nigeria – high god is accessible only through prayer to lesser gods

13. Characteristics of Religion • 3. Supernatural Beings, Powers, Qualities • Polytheistic – many gods • Monotheistic – one god • Combination – • many gods as many aspects of one god eg. India • One god with many aspects eg. Roman Catholic trinity

14. Characteristics of Religion • 3. Supernatural Beings, Powers, Qualities • Trickster spirits are interested in their own benefit, not human • Some pure evil, devil • Some more sympathetic, monkey, hyena, coyote • Enlightenment – quality or state that is not subject to measurement and verification • Mana – religious power or energy concentrated in people or objects, can be dangerous-taboos, mana strong in transitional areas, doors, hair

15. Characteristics of Religion • 4. Rituals and Addressing the Supernatural • Ritual – a ceremonial act or gesture through which people enact their religion • Rites of passage • Rites of intensification • Prayer • Sacrifice • Magic • Divination

16. Characteristics of Religion • 4. Rituals and Addressing the Supernatural • Rites of passage • Mark the transition from one social status to another • Birth, puberty, marriage, death • Separation, liminal, reincorporation

17. Characteristics of Religion • 4. Rituals and Addressing the Supernatural • Rites of intensification • A ritual to reinforce values and norms and strengthen group identity • Totem – object, animal species, or natural feature associated with a group • Australian aborigine totemism • College sports

18. Characteristics of Religion • 4. Rituals and Addressing the Supernatural • Prayer • Communication between people and spirits in which people praise, plead or request without assurance of results • If prayers not answered then spirits didn’t want to

19. Characteristics of Religion • 4. Rituals and Addressing the Supernatural • Sacrifice • An offering to increase effectiveness of a prayer or purity of an individual • Offerings of food, animal lives • cattle sacrifices are community feasts for Nuer, East Africa, • Sacrifice in form of changed behavior • Giving up for Lent

20. Characteristics of Religion • 4. Rituals and Addressing the Supernatural • Magic • A religious ritual believed to have mechanical control over supernatural forces • If done properly spirits will be compelled to follow • Imitative magic – procedure looks like result • Voodoo doll • Baptism – wash away original sin • Contagious magic – object that has been with a person retains a connection • Attach clothing or hair to voodoo doll

21. Characteristics of Religion • 4. Rituals and Addressing the Supernatural • Divination • Ritual for getting information from supernatural spirits • Predict future, diagnose disease, learn about past, find objects, solve crime • Scapulomancy – scorched scapula as map of hunt • Willow branch divination for water • Helps people make choices when they don’t have enough information, all options are equal, group disagrees

22. Characteristics of Religion • 5. Religious practitioners • Shamans • Hunt, garden, live like everyone else • Chosen by and able to enter spirit world by trance • Connection to spirits used for healing, divination • Most societies have shamans, shamans are only religious leaders in band and tribal societies

23. Characteristics of Religion • 5. Religious practitioners • Shamanic curing • Before modern medicine illness seen as spiritual imbalance • In trance shaman finds problem, attacks evil spirits • Pharmacopoeia – traditional medicinal preparations • Model of sickness and health is cultural and ceremonies reinforce these and help heal

24. Characteristics of Religion • 5. Religious practitioners • Priests • Person who is formally elected, appointed, or hired to full time religious office • In state societies, religion is an institution with ranked offices • Priests where religion has high gods and lay people are separated from gods, priest mediates

25. Characteristics of Religion • 6. Religion and change • Religion explains the world, gives meaning, order, relationships • when the ideal is too different from people’s daily experience change likely • Religious movements • Identify what is wrong with the world • Present a vision of a better world • Describe transition

26. Characteristics of Religion • 6. Religion and change • Nativistic – religious movement to restore golden age believed to have existed in the past • Vitalistic – looks to future utipoa • Messianic – coming of an individual who will usher in a new stage • Millenarian – a disaster will destroy current world and establish a just utopia